Henrietta Anne Stuart of England, Duchess of Orléans
By Peter Mignard
Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orléans
“As an infant, Princess Henrietta was smuggled to France by her governess after the imprisonment of her father, King Charles I. She grew up at the French court with her mother and became a favourite of the French royal family. In 1661, Henriette Anne – as she was now known – married Philippe, Duke of Orleans, but the marriage was not a happy one. Jealous of his elder brother, Louis XIV, who openly flirted with Henriette, Philippe later deprived his wife of any friends, leaving her isolated and lonely. Her health failing, she nevertheless contributed to international diplomacy by facilitating a treaty between the French king and her brother, King Charles II. Her untimely death was first blamed on poison, but subsequent autopsies revealed that she died of a punctured ulcer.”
Just curious: who is your favourite of the women in Charles II’s life? I thought it would be interesting to find out your opinions, especially as a few of you are seeing the exhibition at Hampton Court soon :)
Personally, I’m a fan of Nell Gwynne and Queen Catherine- but don’t feel restricted to…
I love Catherine and Nell too.
Although there is not much info about her, I like the sound of Christabella Wyndham who was his wet nurse, governess and possibly first lover. She was a bit needy and bossy, but quite a character non the less.
I find Barbara and Louise interesting, but I can’t say I really like them, especially Barbara. I love reading about them though.
I also love Minette.
Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche (1637 – November 29, 1673) was a French nobleman, adventurer, and one of the greatest playboys of the 17th century.
He was the son of Marshal Antoine III de Gramont and Françoise-Marguerite du Plessis de Chivré, Richelieu’s niece. His sister was Catherine Charlotte, (1639–1678), Princess of Monaco and mistress of Louis XIV.
Armand was bisexual. He was part of the entourage of the homosexual Philippe de France, where many reckoned him the handsomest man at court. He was known for being vain, overbearing, and somewhat contemptuous, but many lovers of both genders often overlooked these flaws. It is generally accepted that he became the lover of Henrietta d’Orleans, but for a time he also paid court to Louise de La Vallière.
Guiche was, however, not sufficiently enamored with Louise to challenge King Louis XIV’s affections for her. He was exiled in 1662 for conspiring with the jealous Henrietta d’Orleans to drive a wedge between Louis XIV and Louise.
He then fought against the Turks for Poland, against the English for the Dutch, and eventually returned to France in 1669.
He returned to court in 1671. In 1672, he joined Louis XIV and the Great Condé in the Franco-Dutch war and covered himself in glory when he swam across the Rhine, and the whole army followed his example.
Charles and Minette
‘The king was accustomed to turning to women when he was in need of comfort, and at this time the need was great.
At his mothers home in France he renewed his acquaintance with his youngest sister, Henrietta. It might be truer to say that he met her for the first time, for the captivating fifteen-year-old who demurely greeted him now bore little resemblance to the precocious child he had scarcely noticed five years before.
Henrietta, or ‘Minette’ as he soon nicknamed her, was no great beauty. A birth defect had left her with one shoulder higher than the other and she experienced indifferent health, but this diminutive, porcelain-complexioned, cornflower-eyed adolescent had about her such an aura that, for most people, to know her was to love her.
This was the young lady who, in December 1659, greeted her brother with a show of unaffected warmth. The attraction was mutual, immediate and total. The difference in ages lent Charles a parental aspect. Henrietta’s eldest brother was the nearest thing she ever had to a father, for she had never known Charles I. She evoked in Charles protective, proprietorial feelings. They spent delightful hours in each others company and as soon as Charles went on his way they began an intimate correspondence that was to continue intermittently up to Henrietta’s early death. The King looked forward to his sisters chatty letters and replied in a vein that was part parental and part amatory:
“I will never give up the friendship that I have for you and you give me so many marks of yours that we shall never have any quarrel but as to which of us shall love the other most, but in this I will never yield to you. We talk of you every day and wish a thousand times in the day to be with you. Let me know, I pray you, how you pass your time.
I beg of you, do not treat me with so much ceremony in according me so many ‘Majesties’, for I do not wish there to be anything else between us two but friendship”
-From the book “All the Kings Women” by Derek Wilson
James, Duke of York, Charles, Prince of Wales and Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans in a group portrait
after Henri Gascar
This group portrait is quite strange in that all three siblings appear to have been painted as children of around the same age. Charles as the eldest child was in fact 14 years older than the youngest, Henrietta Anne.
Portrait of Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy 1690c.
By Henri Gascar
The fifteenth Duke of Savoy, and in 1713 became King of Sicily. He then exchanged this kingdom with that of Sardinia in 1718, at the suggestion of the Holy Roman Emperor.
He married Anne Marie d’Orléans the youngest child of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (brother of Louis XIV) and Henrietta of England, youngest child of Charles I of England.
The family of Louis XIV by Jean Nocret
From l to r: Louis’ aunt Henrietta-Maria of France;
Louis’ brother Philippe of France, Monsieur;
Philppe’s daughter Marie Louise;
Philippe’s wife, Henrietta-Maria’s daughter, Henrietta of England;
Queen Mother Anne of Austria;
King Louis XIV;
His legitimate children, Louis (1661), Marie Thérèse, la Petite Madame (1667) and Philippe (1668);
Louis’ wife Queen Maria Theresa of Austria (1638);
Louis’ cousin Anne Marie Louise d’Orleans, la Grande Mademoiselle (1627)
Princess Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orléans, known as ‘Madame’ in france where she lived with her husband Phillippe, brother of Louis XIV, and affectionately named ‘Minette’ by her older brother King Charles II of England.
Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orleans, youngest child of King Charles I of England. copy attributed to Jean Petitot
Anne Marie d’Orléans (27 August 1669 – 26 August 1728) was the first Queen consort of Sardinia and the maternal grandmother of Louis XV of France.
She was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV, and Princess Henrietta of England, the youngest daughter of Charles I of England. Her mother died at the Château de Saint-Cloud ten months after Anne Marie’s birth. A year later, her father married 21-year-old Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, who became very close to her stepdaughters (her other stepdaughter being Anne’s sister Marie Louise who became queen consort of Spain). Her half-brother Philippe d’Orléans, the future Regent of France, was born of her father’s second marriage.
She married the Duke of Savoy, later King of Sicily and then of Sardinia in 1684 and bore eight children.
Her Stepmother described her as “one of the most amiable and virtuous of women”
She died of heart failure in 1728 aged 59.
Marie Louise of Orléans (26 March 1662 – 12 February 1689) was Queen consort of Spain from 1679 to 1689 as the first wife of King Charles II of Spain. She was Niece of Louis XIV of France and daughter of Philippe of Orléans and Henrietta Anne of England (Charles II beloved little sister “Minette”)
She married Charles II of Spain in 1679. She was unhappy at the Spanish court, but was fond of her husband and he adored her. Unfortunately they never got the children they so desired and Marie died at the age of only 26, possibly of appendicitis.
